McDonald's, Big Boy plan gets OK, but fate of project uncertain

PETOSKEY — Petoskey’s planning commission granted conditional approval Thursday to a new McDonald’s and a reconstructed Big Boy plus new retail space at the U.S. 31/U.S. 131 intersection.

But don’t look for construction on the corner to begin very soon.

Planners 8-1 approved the landowner’s site plan including the drive-through window operation at the proposed McDonald’s. But the vote came with conditions and changes imposed by the commission which might not pass muster with McDonald’s.

That leaves the project up in the air.

“It’s frustrating to go through the process,” said Brian Ludlow, former Petoskey resident whose family businesses own the land and which at one time owned and operated the Big Boy and former Lud’s restaurants there. “I understand the process but it was frustrating, and it’s not very welcoming for businesses. In the worst economic times since the Great Depression, I was surprised this was such a tough thing to do.

Advertisement

“But at the end of the day, we still don’t have a project. McDonald’s has to reconsider their situation. It may have gotten approved with conditions tonight, but it is not a project. It could be sitting there, the way it is, for years to come.”

Ludlow stressed that the project will brings jobs to Petoskey and will mark a major aesthetic improvement to the corner.

“We feel this is a great improvement to this property,” he said. “It’s creating jobs, it’s making the site look better. We feel it’s a great improvement for the community.”

Planners vehemently opposed parking within the 20-foot-wide greenstrip fronting U.S. 131. Businesses wanting to build on the site were just as forceful in their arguments that the parking spaces are crucial.

The impasse thawed with commissioner Rick Neumann’s suggestion that the spaces in front of the proposed McDonald’s be converted to parallel spaces, roughly doubling the depth of the greenstrip but cutting parking in that area by half.

Earlier in the three-hour meeting, the developer and future tenants Big Boy and McDonald’s compromised on another stumbling block, and agreed to give up left-turn entrance into the McDonald’s portion of the site off U.S. 131 — but not before a lengthy back and forth with the city officials about accidents; conflicting conclusions on traffic engineer reports; and the unshakable belief expressed by planners and some audience members that the restaurant businesses absolutely will create greater conflicts than the intersection experiences right now.

Also, the businesses offered to give up three parking spaces in the setback in favor of more landscaping. But in the end, planners wanted more changes to parking.

To move the question along, McDonald’s representative, Michigan Regional Area Real Estate Manager Gregory Dennis, said he’d take parallel parking and site plan changes insisted upon by the commission to his home office to see if that is acceptable or if it kills the deal.

Dennis did not say when his organization would have a decision. Ludlow said it may take two weeks.

Ludlow’s development plan calls for tearing down the existing Hu-Nan restaurant, Big Boy and Jungle arcade buildings, and a house at 619 Charlevoix Ave., replacing them with an approximately 4,200-square-foot McDonald’s and a 8,500-square-foot mixed-use retail/restaurant building that includes a rebuilt Big Boy restaurant.

The McDonald’s portion of the project includes a drive-through — a specially permitted use, and one which requires planning commission approval. That gave planners more leverage over how the site is developed.

Planning commissioner Emily Meyerson, along with commissioner Cynthia Linn Robson, were the most insistent in their continued objections to the frontyard setback parking. However, Meyerson was the only commissioner to vote no. She said that the city’s zoning ordinance may allow for parking in the setback, but that it’s up to the commission to agree. If the tenants need more parking than the site can accommodate, Meyerson said, perhaps the site is the wrong place for the businesses.

“(Parking) does not have to go in the setback,” Meyerson said. “You can find somewhere else, get more land, make buildings smaller. Our job is to make it best for the community ... for the next 50-100 years. That’s what our job is.”

“They have a right to parking but we have a right not to allow it in the frontyard setback,” she said, earlier in the meeting. “If they want more parking they can find it somewhere else. It may be the wrong place for these developments.”

CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL

In votingon the special use permit, planning commissioners were required to assess whether the proposed development meets a detailed series of site plan standards. Thursday a majority voted that the standards are met.

Commissioner Elizabeth Looze’s motion to approve the site plan and special use permit request allowing a drive-through operation included the major site plan changes sought by the commission:

Prohibitingany left turn entrances or exits at the U.S. 131 access to the development

That the siteplan clarify sidewalk locations

The site haveleast two bicycle racks

Leaving Big Boy’s parkingspots as sought by applicant but making the spaces in front the proposed McDonald’s into parallel spots, which adds approximately 9 feet of green space which planners wanted landscaped, not just as grass.